Someone asked why the timber industry folks hadn’t spoken out about the employee cuts.. apparently they were working on it, as per this E&E News story. The Forest Service used to have a management training where we learned “affirm in public, counsel in private.” Perhaps they attended the “be silent in public, counsel in private” training instead.
The Forest Service is beginning to rehire some of the probationary employees it shed in the mass firings of Feb. 14, according to people within the agency.
An employee with direct knowledge of the Forest Service’s actions said the agency has compiled “small” numbers of terminated employees to be rehired, including for timber
management, and that managers may have an opportunity to request bringing back additional staff.The moves mirror those of other agencies that have concluded the mass firings may have gone too far in decimating staff working on critical matters or on policies that
support the Trump administration’s agenda.
At the Forest Service, the loss of probationary workers all but eliminated a timber “strike team” in the Rocky Mountain region as well as the disaster recovery team
working on the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina, heavily damaged by Hurricane Helene last September.
Employees who described the agency’s latest moves aren’t authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity to share details.
In addition, a wildlife biologist on Pisgah whose dismissal Feb. 14 was featured in news accounts posted on Facebook that he’s been rehired.
“I was provided no information regarding what prompted this change, or how many of my colleagues have received similar letters,” Mike Knoerr posted. He said he’s the only
wildlife biologist employed at the forest.Knoerr couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. In his post detailing the firing, he’d said he’d lost his dream job and that he’d “only had stellar performance reviews.”
The Forest Service and the Agriculture Department didn’t immediately confirm numbers of probationary employees shed, or those considered for rehiring.
As in other agencies, the reason for inviting employees back — Knoerr said his letter called his position “Mission Critical” — appears at odds with the earlier form letter notifying them they’d been fired.
That letter said the firing was “based on your performance,” adding, “you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest.”
The North Carolina employee was part of a roughly 20-person team working on disaster recovery, as the federal government directs about $3 billion into the effort on Pisgah.
Organizations that work with the Forest Service said the mass firings — initially confirmed at 3,400 but since reduced to an estimated 2,000 by the administration —
were clearly made without regard to, or possibly understanding of, what the agency’s employees do.
Losses in timber-related staff directly contradict the administration’s goal of harvesting more trees in national forests, these organizations said. They also run counter to a promise Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins made to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) at her confirmation hearing in January to increase timber output at the Rocky Mountain region’s Black Hills National Forest.
The timber strike team was responsible for 65 percent of the timber harvests on the Black Hills forest in 2023, according to an agency employee and outside organizations that work with the Forest Service.
In that region alone, the Forest Service has told organizations, more than 30 staff working in timber — such as preparing for sales — were dismissed, out of more than 130 total employees.
The heaviest toll was on recreational technicians, of which 55 were terminated.
Maybe Dave M. can tell us why there was such a high proportion of probationary folks working in timber.
It appears that President Trump is trying to implement “zero-based budgeting” to replace the “incremental budgeting” that has led to massive deficits and a national debt of $36 Trillion. Zero-based budgeting requires all expenses to be justified for each new period.
Incremental budgeting has been such a disaster because it assumes that all programs continue to be needed as we go forward. New budgets are then just the old budget plus an adder for inflation.
By cutting back employees where possible and then adding those back who are part of programs that the administration wants to continue, Trump is moving toward the admirable goal of responsible budgeting.
Responsible budgeting is what every business that intends to stay in business has to do routinely.
It is about time.
That’s because every business needs to maximize financial returns, so I don’t see the relevance of these private business practices to public service. (Not that I disagree with seeking cost efficiency in providing public benefits.) We also have (had?) federal laws to protect federal employees from the kind of disruption you support in private employment – but I assume you are against that, too.
The reason why there are so many timber folks in probation status is that the Black Hills NF has such a high turnover. When I moved to the Forest in 2011, this was an incredible timber operation. Top-notch employees who knew their jobs well and also knew how to get it done. We were selling up to 240,000 ccf/year back then. We had several years of approved NEPA projects on the shelf. The Forest was known as a place to get great experience and then move on to bigger things if that is what they wanted. Many employees also stayed here for a long time. Those days are long gone. Many of the highly experienced people either moved on or retired. It is now a difficult place to work due to the political pressure. New people are hired and then move on when they have the opportunity. With all of the renewed pressure to sell more timber from an already overcut Forest, it will just make things worse. They don’t deserve this but yet, it is what it is. It’s too bad.
Thanks, Dave!
I would have never, in a million years, thought the FS would do that to a Forest! I would not believe it now had I not experienced it, for a short time, alongside Dave. And now, the powerful are even more so; God help “The Hills”……
Fifteen years ago, I also would have never thought this could happen to a Forest. I had too much faith in the FS and the built-in protections of law, policy, and regulations. I did not take into account how politics can affect all of that. And this happened under Obama, Trump and Biden so it’s bipartisan. In the end, NFMA is somewhat toothless. Well-intentioned but toothless. Thanks, Jim for speaking up!
This is merely yet another example of how the USFS doesn’t communicate what it needs to do its basic mission. However, it is also another example of the Executive Branch not wanting Agency input, too.
So, the USFS needs timber people. Is that it? Nothing else? No wildlife surveys? No cultural resource work to do? No timber clerks? No Hydrologists? OK, then, we’ll see what happens, eh?
The reason given for termination in the dismissal letter is untrue, insulting, and unnecessarily detrimental to the employee’s chance of finding new employment. OPM’s singular concern was expediency achieved by the use of a hastily and thoughtlessly constructed boilerplate document. It exhibits shameful disregard for federal employees.